President Obama was quite clear on his expectations for a deal to raise the debt limit: “The only bottom line that I have is that we have to extend this debt ceiling through the next election, into 2013.” While the President blatantly telegraphed that he cared only about his own reelection rather than taking responsibility for the nation’s fiscal issues, House Republicans offered solutions that would have ensured that lawmakers remained accountable for their actions, instead of simply giving elected officials a pass. However, congressional leaders spun their wheels as they found it impossible to negotiate with a wavering White House.
Multi-Billion Dollar CMS Overpayments Continue
Healthcare, General Waste
The Senate Budget Committee – A Story of Failed Leadership
Congress is statutorily obligated to pass a budget by October 1 of each year; yet, as of August 1, 2011, it has been 824 days since the Senate last passed a budget (April 29, 2009). Lawmakers have abdicated their duty by funding the government through multiple, consecutive short-term continuing resolutions. During this protracted period of indolence, the Senate Budget Committee has spent more than $12 million in taxpayer funds on staff salaries and other extraneous expenses, while Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) office has spent in excess of $5 million.
The Pig Book is Alive and Well
Congress is supposed to be on a no-pork diet in 2011. After Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-S.C.) nonbinding one-year earmark moratorium passed in the Senate on November 16, 2010, and as more and more politicians began to speak publicly about the importance of ending pork-barrel spending, longtime earmark opponents like Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) began to think that the earmark era might finally be coming to a close. Those prospects seemed even rosier when President Obama announced that he would veto any bill containing earmarks during his 2011 State of the Union Address.
FCC Continues to Forge Ahead with Net Neutrality Regulations
On July 11, 2011, President Obama issued Executive Order No. 13579 to improve and reform the regulatory process for government agencies. How this Executive Order will be implemented remains to be seen, as some agencies are forging ahead with costly, unnecessary and burdensome regulations that contravene the intent of the Executive Order.
CCAGW Supports Boehner’s Budget Control Act
With the clock ticking and the nation’s economic future hanging in the balance, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) urged all members of Congress to support House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) Budget Control Act of 2011. The Congressional Budget Office found that the Budget Control Act would reduce the deficit by $22 billion in fiscal year 2012 and $917 billion over 10 years, which is greater than the $900 billion debt ceiling increase.
SSDI Funding at Risk
In fiscal year (FY) 2010, the Social Security Disability Insurance program (SSDI) shelled out approximately $123 billion in benefits to more than 10 million disabled workers and their dependents. Reforms in the SSDI program are long overdue; without them, the fund is expected to be depleted by 2018 according to a June 14, 2011 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. One reason for SSDI’s financial woes is a 63 percent increase in overpayments, from $860 million in FY 2001 to $1.4 billion in FY 2010.
The FAST Solution to Medicare and Medicaid Fraud
Each year, Americans lose tens of billions of their hard-earned tax dollars to Medicare and Medicaid waste, fraud, and abuse. The most recent estimates from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) indicate that there was nearly $48 billion in improper payments for Medicare and $22.5 billion in the federal share of improper payments in Medicaid in fiscal year 2010. These figures are just the tip of the iceberg and do not include the countless, undocumented occurrences of theft carried out by organized crime rings aimed at defrauding Medicare, the stealing and selling of beneficiary numbers on the black market, and the creation of front groups and fake doctors’ offices that cheat the system at the taxpayers’ expense.
Rampant Waste Reported in NSF
A report was released on May 26, 2011 by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) that exposed wasteful spending at the National Science Foundation (NSF). The report found $3 billion in mismanagement, with more than $1.2 billion of NSF’s total budget of $6.9 billion for fiscal year 2010 squandered due to waste, fraud, and duplication.
Progress in Campaign to End MEADS
Created in 1995, the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) is a collaborative missile defense project intended to replace the Patriot Missile system, which has been used by the U.S. and its allies for decades. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the U.S., Germany, and Italy required that the U.S. pony up 58 percent of the development costs, with Germany covering 25 percent and Italy paying 17 percent. The U.S. has already spent $1.9 billion on the design and development phase of MEADS, but the program has been plagued with cost overruns of $2 billion and is 10 years behind schedule.